Scripture Abuse: 2 Chronicles 7:14, idolatry, nationalism, and antisemitism

Note: I know a number of committed Christians, people whom I love and respect, who have been known to use 2 Chronicles 7:14 as a promise to America.  While I feel that a proper grammatical/contextual/historical interpretation of this passage precludes such an interpretation and application (see below), I am not questioning their faith, only offering them a warning about the danger of misplaced/misunderstood patriotism.

I saw this image shared on Facebook this week.  As someone who has previously highlighted various verses in my Bible, I don't take issue with the desire to make it easier to find a passage in the future, or to remember what one thought about a passage with a note in the margin.  This is not that.  To draw an American Flag on top of the words of Scripture raises serious questions, to put it here at 2 Chronicles 7:14 points us in the direction of why someone might do this.

2 Chronicles 7:14  New International Version

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Why is this interpretation/application of 2 Chronicles 7:14 both erroneous and dangerous?

1. It ignores the context

1 & 2 Chronicles are, as the name suggest, a chronicle of the of the Kingdom of Israel (after the schism, Judah), from the reign of King Saul to the Exile to Babylon.  It was written after the Exile as a history for the people who had returned to the Promised Land, offering them understanding as to why things had happened in their past, and hope for the future.  The specific context of 7:14 is that the LORD is speaking to King Solomon after the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem.  In that conversation, God promises to Solomon that when the Israelites fail to obey the Covenant, there will be a chance for them to return to God through repentance.  Why?  Because God has promised them in his Covenant both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and God is faithful to his word, if they repent he will heal them.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is a promise from God to Israel.  It is a promise derived from, and inherently connected to, the Covenant that began with Abraham and was expounded further upon to Moses, David, and now Solomon.  It was not a promise for any surrounding tribe or nation at that time, nor any other nation later in history.  In fact, as Genesis unfolds Abraham learns that Isaac, and Isaac alone, is the Child of Promise.  In the next generation, God specifically chooses Jacob over Esau, once against showing that it is God's sovereign will that matters.

Romans 9:10-15  New International Version

Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

2. It ignores the grammar

America is not 'my people', they are not 'called by my name'.  I know that millions of Christians believe that we are, but there is no legitimate way that how these terms are used by God when he spoke to Solomon could be stretched to now include the United States.  Why?  The descendants of Abraham were specifically called by God, set apart by God, and made into a tribe and nation by God.  They were 'my people' in every possible way.  Where is the parallel to America?  At what point, and in what way, were the people who inhabit this land called by God to be here?  The Israelites bore the name of God, wherever they went they represented God to the world around them, their distinctive practices in the Law of Moses setting them apart.  Where is the parallel to America?  In what way, historically or in the present, are the American people distinctive culturally in a way that marks us out as God's people?  When considering American distinctives, are ANY of them marks of a people who belong to God?

Numbers 6:27  New International Version

“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

In addition, 'their land' is a reference to the Promised Land.  It can be no other land in the context of God's conversation with Solomon.  It didn't mean any other geographic place on earth.  To say that God's promise also applies to England, Spain, Australia, South Korea, or America is to ignore what the text originally intended and decide, on our own, that it can be extended globally.  

For a longer treatment of this issue steeped in scriptural analysis see: The Myth of a Christian Nation - by Gregory Boyd: a summary and response

3. It replaces the Church with America in the hearts and minds of Christians

The promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is an Old Covenant promise, not a New Covenant promise.  That alone should give us pause as to why it would be applied by Christians to their own circumstances.  Beyond that, the promise is made to God's people, not to a nation state.  When American Christians (or Christians in any other nation) utilize this verse to talk about their country, they're blurring the line of belonging between the Kingdom of God / Family of God to which they belong as followers of Jesus Christ, and the Kingdom of this World to which they belong as earthly citizens.  

Even if the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 were applicable to the New Covenant people, it would apply to the Church not any nation.  Why?  When God instituted the New Covenant through the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost he did so with peoples called out from every tribe, language, and nation.  The wonder at Pentecost of hearing the Gospel in their own languages by Jerusalem's diverse pilgrim crowd illustrated this new emphasis.  

Galatians 3:26-28  New International Version

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Revelation 7:9  New International Version

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

It is unfortunate that after the favor placed upon Christianity by Constantine that the idea of Christendom developed.  Many of the evils that Christians were involved in from that point on involved protecting Christendom, a 'Christian nation' or collection of Christian nations, from worldly threats.  Christendom as a concept opened up Christians to the embrace of the idea of winning converts with the sword, of utilizing evil 'that good may result' because of supposed political necessity, of conquering 'in Jesus' name' and shouting 'God wills it!' as they slaughtered infidels.

Whether one loves America or not, America is NOT the Church.  It never was, it cannot be.  We blur the lines of allegiance, obligations, and fidelity at our peril.

4. It raises America in our hearts and minds toward a place of idolatry. 

I love this country, and count it a great blessing to have been born in this land and have its citizenship, but that blessing cannot compare to having been called by the Spirit of God to become of follower of Jesus Christ, joining the Family of God and becoming a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.  In every way, our faith requires that our allegiance to God come first.  If my nation, tribe, community, family choose to abandon God, sin against God, or ignore his call to live righteously in this world, I must choose what faith require over those bonds.  Have Christians done this consistently and properly throughout history?  Sadly no.  They have too often thought of themselves as Dutchmen, Englishmen, Russians, or Americans first, and only secondarily as Christians.  This is, to not mince words, idolatry.  Whenever devotion to any other unit (family, community, tribe, nation) rises in importance and obligation above the total commitment to the Cross and the Gospel that God demands of those whom he has redeemed, it is sinful idolatry.  We may not want to hear this, but we must.

I hope that America has a long and glorious future, but I have no idea if this will be.  God has made no such promises to this nation or any other outside of ancient Israel.  I have no idea if America will be a force for good in our world, if it will embrace its potential and reject its flaws.  I do know, with certainty, that the Church will endure until the Day of Judgment.  I do know that God's Spirit will continue to work in its people, globally, because he has indeed promised that he will do so, that his Church will triumph and bring glory to his name.  As flawed as it can be, and as often as its people have failed to live up to their calling, the Church's future is secure.

Matthew 16:18New International Version

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

5. Reading America into Old Covenant texts is a form of antisemitism.

Antisemitism is the darkest stain on the dress of the Bride of Christ.  That it is an inexcusable evil goes without saying.  There is a long standing tendency for Christians to disregard the Covenantal promises made by God to Abraham's descendants and to appropriate them as their own.  Does this fly in the face of Paul's impassioned argumentation in Romans?  Yes, but it has happened anyway.  

To read America into 2 Chronicles 7:14 is to lessen the uniqueness of God's call to Israel.  It downplays God's choice of this people, and decides to replace it with another people of our choosing.  We, the Church, cannot replace Israel in God's plans, to go beyond that false theology and think that America can stand beside Israel and claim the same promises (conveniently ignoring the curses), or worse yet replace Israel as the sole recipient of those promises, is folly, arrogance, and antisemitism. 

Conclusion

Patriotism can be a good thing, but it also potentially very dangerous, especially to Christians.  Love of country can be a good thing, but it is also potentially very dangerous when it skews our thinking.  America is not the Church and America is not Israel, and 2 Chronicles 7:14 does not belong to either of one of them.  

Would God 'heal this land' if repentance swept the nation?  Yes, but not in the same way that 2 Chronicles 7:14 promises (good harvests, freedom from illnesses, rest from enemies), and not because we are 'his people' or 'called by his name'.  Repentance would lead to a form of healing because the very nature of existence reflects the nature of God, thus always making evil a dead end path and righteousness a blessing.  This dynamic is true for every individual and every grouping of people, whether they know God or not.  To invoke 2 Chronicles 7:14, and claim its promise as our own, goes beyond this, leading to both false hope in promises God has not made to us, and distortions of the necessary boundaries between our Heavenly and Earthly citizenships.

2 Chronicles 7:14 Isn’t About American Politics - by Russell Moore

Further writings from me on related topics:

Mark Meadows, Ginni Thomas, and the blasphemy of thinking God is on your side.

The irrefutable rejection of Christian Nationalism by the New Testament

Ronald Reagan was wrong, America is not a "city on a hill", it never could be.

The blasphemous "One Nation Under God" painting by Jon McNaughton

Rejecting Idolatry: No, Mike Pence, we will not, "Fix our eyes on Old Glory"